Because our church wedding theme in the Philippines is about travelling and because we are adding some Parisian elements to it I figured I should do a WYB that's kinda dramatic. And that inspired this project (click photo above for better view).

Our church wedding's motif in the Philippines, by the way, is peach and yellow that's why there's a peach tiny flower and yellow ribbon around that WYB and ofcourse I have the Eiffel Tower charms (bought it from etsy.com, look for happysupplies).

Now, I am going to share how I did this. First, the materials you need.

1. Remove the stickers on the spool. Dab it with wet cloth if there are still some difficult to remove residue left.
2. Let the spool dry then bring out your Paris rubber stamp and stamp both sides of the spool base.

3. Measure the width of the body of the spool and cut your fabric accordingly. How long your fabric would be would depend on how long the name of the recipient is or how big or small the alphabet rubber stamp you have. I would advise you to do at least one mock-up spool WYB before you start this project in full throttle.
4. Stamp one side of your fabric using your Paris rubber stamp.

5. Then flip the fabric and start stamping that other side with the name of your recipient and the role you want him/her in.
6. Glue the end of the fabric on the spool. Make sure the part you glue in is the end of the sentence/question part. I just think it's logical if your recipient sees his/her name first while she unscrolls the spool.
7. Then measure the circumference of the spool and cut your lace accordingly. You would need 2 of that lace per spool. One for the top and another for the bottom.
8. Sew the lace in.
9. Hook your charm on the ribbon of your choice then wrap the ribbon around the spool and tie it on the spool securely.
10. Insert the tiny flower.
11. That's it your done! It's up to you how you want to package this. What I did is I bought those cheap organza cream pouch, put the spool in. As for the shipping part (in my case my entourage are in the Philippines but I am in the U.S) I got myself a bubble wrap lined enveloped and placed the organza pouch with the spool inside.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

we went wedding ring shopping today.... just for the h2b.... the second engagement ring he bought me is a match set and the h2b is just hiding the matching wedding ring for now because he said he doesn't want to jinx our wedding.... we're doing the same thing we did for my official engagement ring, we'll shop together and both of us should like the ring.....

first jewelry shop we went to was koehler's in lansdale, which he playfully said is the "real" jewelry store because they've been around since dirt was invented (actually, it's just 85 years)..... i like that store..... it has lots of men's wedding rings to choose from and most of them are really nice...... we saw a lot that i like that he doesn't like and we also saw some that he likes that i don't like but we were able to find one that we both liked..... but we still want to explore our options so we went to another jewelry shop.....

we went to kay jewellers at montgomery mall...... the same place where the h2b bought all the rings he gave me............ they don't have a lot of male wedding rings to choose from but they have some decent ones and we actually saw 3 that we would want for him to try......... problem is they were excruciatingly slow.....they were attending to other customers but it's taking them forever to finish one customer...... i got impatient plus they looked like they're ignoring us so i told the h2b to just go to the jewelry shop next door which is gordon's.....

gordon's too doesn't have a lot of men's wedding ring choices but the h2b tried a couple...... we're ready to give up on that store when the sales lady who's waiting on us picked up a ring and asked the h2b to try it......... as soon as the saleslady handed the ring to the h2b we both started making faces........... the ring is exactly the type of ring that the h2b said he wouldn't pick out but the h2b still tried it on just to be polite and shock of all shock, he actually liked the ring......

i was so surprised that i kept asking him if he's sure, but he was just giggling like a girl over that ring, lol...... he said he's shocked himself and that he never imagined himself picking that ring but when he tried it on it just looks good on him...... he said there's something about the pattern and lines that makes it so attractive......

i must admit, that's not the kind of ring i would pick out for him...... i mean, don't get me wrong, it looks nice and everything and it's not something i would get embarrassed about when he started wearing it but i just have a different image on my brain on how his wedding ring would look like........... but man, that look on his face when he tried that ring on is just priceless..... i just don't have the heart to let that ring get away so i just told him he should get that ring and so we did..... and i offered to pay for it.....

so yes, i bought someone a wedding ring and that someone is my husband-to-be......that is one of the nicest feeling in the world.....

Thursday, January 26, 2012

i mentioned i love that dress (it's called adorae)...... i'm actually contemplating on getting adorae for the church wedding but decided to get the other maggie sottero that's on sale for the civil wedding and to wear a pronovias gown (that i also got on sale) for the church wedding...

here's that dress on me (i can post this now because this isn't the gown i'll be wearing) which is one of the many, many, many, many wedding gowns i tried on....

methinks, anyone who would wear that dress would be gorgeous!

anyway, i was watching that video again because i love that fur wrap on the bride and bridesmaids.... i'm doing the same thing for my female entourage for the civil wedding because May is Spring time which is still kinda cold and windy, and, we'll be standing right next to the ocean which, i'm sure, will add to the chill factor...... so anyway, we'll have this:

this came in to mail today..... i ordered two different styles of faux fur wrap online to see which one i like better and that on the picture won..... it has that elegant look to it when worn with a long dress......

p.s.
i might post all the other gowns i tried on for the civil and church wedding
a week before each of those weddings....

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

nope..... i didn't misspell anything..... that's actually part of the name of the couturier we have just booked in the philippines..... the couturier who would be making my female entourage's gown, my dad and my brother's barong ang my h2b's coat barong..... i am so excited to see how the design i want would turn out and how the coat barong would look on my h2b......

for those who have just heard of the coat barong, it's a barong sewn on top of a coat...which means it's more opaque and not translucent....which also means, it doesn't need camisa chino anymore.....

anyway, back to sheaths.... they are the last major supplier that i need to book which means now i can concentrate on our civil wedding....well... actually we're also almost finished booking all our major civil wedding suppliers and we have just booked our officiant.....right now i am just looking for cakes which is really not in our priority list but i just got tempted to research for cake suppliers in cape may.....

i actually just wanted the civil wedding to be really simple.... like, we just want the 30 minute ceremony and then we'll all just have a regular dinner at a restaurant but then we decided to make this one memorable too because we decided may 12 (which is the civil wedding date) is what we'll celebrate as our wedding anniversary and not the church wedding anymore.... but we're trying to make the civil wedding as intimate as possible though, and we're rooting to have just 40 guests, 50 max.... i didn't invite much on my side because i don't have relatives in the US anyway (the closest i have is in canada) plus i want this wedding to be my h2b's wedding dedicated for his family since only a handful of his family and friends can come to the philippines for our church wedding...... so75% of our guests are my h2b's family and friends and i just invited my friends who are part of the entourage.....

anyway, so yeah, i'm looking for cakes because h2b told me his guest would be expecting a cake which means we'll do the cake slicing and probably first dance and maybe some speeches from friends and family...... i'm not sure about bouquet and garter tossing, though..... i find those really corny.....but ofcourse, knowing me, i might change my mind....

oh, i'm also busy with my shoes.... i have been thinking about contacting this one supplier who does custom stuff for shoes (she's based in canada) and after a year i finally gave in and im currently in the process of filling up my order form, listing down my requests and packing my shoes so i could send it to her.... i'm so very excited! hopefully i can use that shoes for both civil and church wedding....

let's see, what else? on top of my head, here are some other stuff i need to do for the next 3 months:

after the civil wedding:
1. order church wedding favors
2. order sky lanterns
3. order church wedding invitation
4. order escort/table cards
5. have h2b's measurements ready

i'm really starting to like this long engagement, well, i do get impatient because i'm excited to be mrs. N but the pros outweighs the cons.... like, because i have 1.5 years to prepare for the civil wedding and 2 years for the church i can do the wedding preps at whatever pace i like.... there are times that i'm actively booking and researching wedding suppliers in full straight weeks and then i would just stop for a couple of months and then back again....it's really less stressful..... and the other nice thing is that we get to save money and we can semi-splurge.....

my h2b and i are splitting the costs of our two weddings..... i take care of the wedding expenses in the philippines and the h2b takes care of the following:
(1) upgrades for the philippines wedding (food, photographer, video),
(2) some miscellaneous stuff that he wants for the philippines wedding (wedding favors, sky lanterns, ambient lighting),
(3) our roundtrip airfares to & from the philippines (including his family members and best man),
(4) civil wedding expenses here in the U.S, and ofcourse
(5) the honeymoon....

is it a fair split, hmm, not really, LOL, but i don't dare complain, lol....